This invention relates to a surface marking device used to indicate a desired egress route. In situations where a person's vision is impaired, for whatever reason, it may be necessary to very quickly find an exit in an emergency situation. Included in these many situations would be finding one's way to an exit in a smoking passageway during a fire or simply finding one's way at night when little or no light is present. These life threatening situations from smoke inhalation could be in an office building, theater, home, or could be present in vehicles transporting persons, such as in airplanes, ships or trains.
Even if external source factors like smoke, gas are not present to impair a person's vision, it may be that the vision of a specific individual is sufficiently impaired by due to irregularities in their visual system or light conditions to make finding an exit in an emergency situation difficult or impossible in a short time frame. Regardless of the source of limited vision, whether from external or internal sources, finding one's way along a passageway during an emergency may be necessary to avoid very undesirable results.
The present invention is directed to a surface marking system which does not depend on the vision of the user to see the marking system but is based on the feel of the material on the surface designating the proper direction of route of escape all as will be described in detail hereafter.